


The God of Love Is Just a Surfer Dude Who Drinks Martinis All Day

by cosmicdusts



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fantasy AU, M/M, Rating will probably go up, Romance, taeyong is just a struggling student, ten is the god of love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28451652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicdusts/pseuds/cosmicdusts
Summary: Ten is the god of love who takes on the form of whoever the viewer finds most attractive. Taeyong sees his true self.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43
Collections: NCTV Secret Santa 2020





	The God of Love Is Just a Surfer Dude Who Drinks Martinis All Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [romulus_adhara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/romulus_adhara/gifts).



> Hi!!! this actually started off with me planning a road trip au and then it spiralled out of control T_T so sorry that this wasn't exactly what you asked for. In future chapters ill try and bring in the road trip element more!!
> 
> Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!! ❤

Ten stars is what you’d rate him. With a sharp jaw and a sharper attitude, there was nothing to not love, really. He walked like a ten, talked like a ten, and above anything he _loved_ like a ten. So naturally, that was the name he picked out for himself.

“The usual, Ten?” The bartender was wearing a pale blue Hawaiian shirt that day. The colour matched the bright cobalt of the sky and the waves at the shore next to them. Ten’s eyes dipped down to where his top button was tastefully undone to expose a strip of tanned skin.

“You know what I like,” Ten drawled, letting his eyes linger purposefully till no one was sure whether he was talking about the drinks or the flash of a chiselled torso.

The bartender turned till his piercing blue eyes locked with Ten’s own. The gaze sparked with tension while his practised hands made deft work of mixing a martini.

He pushed over a shallow cocktail glass with fresh olives sitting on a toothpick.

“I know you like it extra dirty.”

The blue eyes dipped down to Ten’s lips, and then down to his neck, and then even further down to where his white button-up was completely open so his abs could tan under the sun.

Ten basked under the wanton gaze. It was something he was used to, as familiar to him as the back of his own hand.

He briefly wondered what the man saw. Maybe it was a toned stomach with chocolate skin to match chocolate eyes. Maybe it was a pale torso and hair fair enough to rival the white sand under his feet. Or maybe he appeared as a female with perfectly sculpted breasts and a wicked smile.

They all saw different things.

Sometimes he’d ask out of curiosity. But after hundreds of years of the same thing, most of the time, he simply didn’t care. All that mattered is that they wanted him.

He let his tongue dart out to wet his bottom lip.

Love, lust, admiration, whatever it was - it all tasted like power to a god like him.

And no, despite his ego being inflated enough to fuel a hot air balloon, he didn’t mean “God” in a metaphorical sense.

He literally was the god of love - a deity among mortals like a wolf in a field of sheep. Sure, the other gods didn’t see the appeal of spending any time with the humans at all, but Ten didn’t care. Sue him for liking the Australian sunshine and the breeze by the beach.

It was dull but it was easy. Humans were easy.

He was about to open his mouth to reply to the bartender’s flirty words when there was a loud thud from near them.

A large rucksack was dumped onto the bar top and a pale body crashed into the barstool sending it slipping in Ten’s direction. Ten watched without amusement as it came to a skidding stop a hair away from him. The body proceeded to slump over its overly large bag, hagged breaths heaving the chest up and down as a faint voice came out from the figure.

“Is the biotech campus nearby?”

Ten thought he’d never seen a clumsier person.

From where he was perched on his stool he could only make out blonde hair, matted by sweat to a milky forehead. The face was just out of view, blocked by the monstrosity of a bag that was more reminiscent of high school students than university ones. And a student was clearly what he was. He was looking for a campus and judging by the exhausted edge to his tone and the youthfulness in the unwrinkled skin on his arm, he was no professor.

“The campus is on the other side of the coast,” the bartender replied looking as confused as Ten by the presence of the man-child. “It’s at least an hour’s drive away.”

“ _What?!_ ” The figure shrieked. “An hour? That’s- _fuck_. How did I get so lost? And I just ran out of cash. I don’t suppose you do currency exchanges here? No, of course, you don’t - this is a beachside bar - what am I saying?”

Ten sipped on his drink as he waited for the student to finish his rambling.

“Still, I have a few hundred thousand won somewhere in here-” the body pulled the bag off the counter and onto a nearby barstool so he could rummage through it and - _wow_.

With the olive green bag now out of view, Ten let his gaze trace over the image of a smooth jawline, a perfectly sculpted nose, and large doe eyes. The sweat pasting the hair to his forehead would have made anyone else seem unkempt but somehow, it made the boy glow. The very air around him seemed to shimmer as the Australian sun bounced off his golden locks. With looks like that, one could have mistaken the boy for the god of love instead of Ten.

“I can drop you.”

“What?” The boy turned to him with eyes wide.

Ten bit back a smile. “You heard me. I live near there anyway so I can drop you.”

The boy continued to stare at him with that shocked expression before finally catching himself and looking away awkwardly. “Sorry it’s just- I just thought you looked familiar for a second.” The boy muttered under his breath, “Like an ex...”

Interesting. So the boy was a mortal after all.

“Are you sure you’ll be leaving now?” The bartender turned to Ten with a badly concealed frown. “You haven’t even finished your drink-”

Ten waved a hand dismissively at the man and tipped back the rest of his glass, letting the bitter tang of alcohol wash over his tongue. He wasn’t interested in him anymore. He was boring - a quest already conquered.

He’d _much_ rather go for the prize before him now.

“I didn’t catch a name?” Ten asked the boy. His gaze was probing like he was cutting through all his layers of clothes and facades.

The boy shuffled on his feet, clearly not used to the heat of such a piercing look. “Taeyong.”

 _Taeyong_.

A pretty name spilling out of prettier lips. Ten wanted to taste it against his tongue.

“I’m Ten,” he grinned with a sharp smile before rising to push himself off the barstool and walk across the beach towards the road.

He didn’t turn to check if Taeyong was following. He knew he would. They all did.

\--------

Taeyong had to stop his jaw from dropping open. He blinked repeatedly as if the scene before him would just float away like a mirage with every bat of his eyes.

Before them was a jet black limousine sparkling under the sun and reflecting rays of light that almost made him want to squint. A man, dressed in black to match the inky shade of the car, stood with his head bowed and his hand clasped around the open limousine door.

“After you,” Ten spoke in an unbothered fashion.

“Uh,” Taeyong shifted on his feet, feeling incredibly out of place as he shoved his fraying bag into the car and shuffled in after it. “Thanks,” he muttered, though he wasn’t entirely sure who to. To the chauffeur maybe, or to Ten. Or maybe to life for getting him out of a sticky situation and throwing him into a ride fit for royalty.

“What was it you said you do again?” Taeyong asked the man who slid into the seat opposite him.

Taeyong didn’t remember Ten mentioning his work, though clearly, it had to be something very impressive if this was his preferred mode of transport. Now that he thought about it, Taeyong didn’t remember Ten mentioning, well, _anything_. He knew near nothing about the man so maybe getting into his car hasn’t been the brightest of ideas. Well, he’d just have to go with it now. His phone was long out of battery and if this was how he died at least he’d spend his last minutes nestled into soft suede seats with the pleasant chill of air-con around him.

“Just business deals here and there,” Ten replied vaguely. “I’m assuming you’re a student.”

Taeyong perked up at that. Finally, he could steer the conversation into familiar territory. “Yeah. I study marine biology in Seoul but I got invited to do a summer programme here. It’s not every day you get to see the world’s largest coral reef system in person. Did you know its _two-thousand_ kilometres long?”

Ten watched him with a strange gaze he couldn’t quite read and Taeyong bit his tongue. Right. Most people probably didn’t care as much as him about the marine fauna.

“I’m sorry for rambli-” he began. The apology was at the tip of his tongue, only for it to be cut off by Ten.

“Two-thousand three hundred.”

Taeyong blinked. “What?”

“It’s two-thousand three hundred kilometres long.”

Taeyong froze, his thoughts racing. Was Ten just making that up? Why would Ten know that? But above all, Taeong had been _wrong_?

Ten watched his mental crisis with the shadow of an amused smile. “I pick up knowledge here and there from my clients,” he said as if in explanation.

Taeyong wondered just what sort of clients he’d had. Before he could pose his doubts, Ten whipped out a slender green bottle of wine and two glasses, none of which Taeyong had noticed before. Odd. He had no doubt from the fancy name he couldn’t read on the label and the rest of Ten’s set-up, that it was ridiculously overpriced.

“Wine?” Ten gestured one of the glasses he filled in Taeyong’s direction.

The burn in the dryness of his throat said yes but his shamefully extensive collection of memories of him crying after a few glasses of red said no. The stress of his travel sat heavy on his shoulders and the last thing he needed was to have a breakdown in Ten’s limousine.

“No thanks,” he politely shook his head. “I’m not the biggest fan of red wine.”

“Good thing this is white then,” Ten replied.

Taeyong’s eyes dipped down and- Oh. That was definitely white. He could have sworn he’d seen red a minute ago-

Ten chuckled, his laugh reverberating in the air between them. The sound was warm and sweet and Taeyong subconsciously relaxed like he was melting into it. “You look like you could use a glass,” Ten prompted with no real pressure.

Taeyong reached out to take it, peering into the liquid with suspicion as if he was waiting for it to magically change colour again. When it didn’t, he brought it up to his lips for a tentative sip and concluded that it tasted like bitter alcohol and crisp dollar bills.

Ten was nice to him.

So nice to him.

 _Too_ nice to him.

“What do you want?” Taeyong asked with a wary gaze at the man before him. His tone was teetering on the edge of slurring but he _refused_ to slur his words because he’d only had three glasses and he could do better than that, goddammit.

“A lot of things,” Ten shrugged, non-committal. His gaze was icy cool and Taeyong was trying _so hard_ but he couldn’t read it at all.

“I meant with _me_ ,” Taeyong jabbed his index finger into his own chest just in case Ten didn’t understand what he meant.

But Ten was nowhere near as tipsy as him so of course, he’d understood what he meant. The man’s gaze stayed cool and his lips unmoving. It wasn’t a gesture of not knowing. No. Ten sat like he always had - like he knew _everything_.

Taeyong shivered at the silence that hung heavy over them. It was almost like Ten intended for his previous answer to still apply.

“I don’t have any money, you know,” Taeyong pouted.

Ten cracked a smile at that. Taeyong was unsure why that gave him such a sense of satisfaction.

“I can tell you don’t,” Ten replied, his gaze very pointedly lingering on Taeyong’s tatted bag.

“Is it- is it the reef? I don’t have much authority so they probably won’t let me take you to see it.”

Ten scoffed. “It’s not the reef.”

“ _Then?_ ”

Nothing about Ten made much sense. Taeyong just wanted one thing he could understand.

The limousine rolled to a stop and shortly after. The chauffeur opened the door to his right, allowing sunlight to come streaming in.

Ten looked different in this light. Ten looked different in every light.

“As I said, the campus was on my way.”

The chauffeur helped Taeyong unload his things, frowning at his abnormally loaded bag. Taeyong thanked him and then stood awkwardly on the pavement, unsure of the etiquette that was meant to follow having a wealthy stranger drop you off at your research department.

“Can- can I get your number?” he spoke before he could even register his own words.

Ten raised a singular eyebrow at him.

“I mean! So I can pay you back for the ride- or something.” Taeyong laughed awkwardly. “I kinda owe you one.”

Ten shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No, I insist!” Taeyong spoke in a panicked voice, shoving an arm forward to stop the door from shutting. He hated being indebted to people.

For the first time that afternoon, Ten showed signs of an emotion that wasn’t indifference or forced politeness. He showed surprise. And then he showed smugness.

There was a moment of silence that passed, much like the eye of the hurricane before the storm came crashing back in full force.

“I see.” Ten spoke from the rolled-down window as Taeyong moved his hand to let the door slowly shut. “I gave you a ride and offered you wine and now you’ve caught _feelings-”_

 _“What?!”_ Taeyong’s voice shot up by an octave.

 _“_ I suppose it’s understandable-”

“No! What?!”

“I really should have made my intentions more clear-”

“I was just trying to show _gratitude_!” Taeyong shook his head with fervour. He really had only been trying to show gratitude. He’d asked for his number on a whim and now- now Ten had all these completely false assumptions in his head.

“I’m sorry,” Ten spoke, stressing each word slowly. “It’s just- you’re not really my type.”

Taeyong’s next excuse died on his lips as his jaw hung open in shock. Heat bloomed against his cheeks.

“Good luck with your studies though!” Ten nodded at him as he slowly rolled his windows shut before driving away.

Taeyong stood frozen, staring at the ghost of the vehicle that had been in front of him moments ago. His mind reeled and his eyes twitched in suspended shock.

He scoffed.

“Not really my type” his _ass._ Taeyong was everyone’s type. That wasn’t immodesty it was just fact.

He scoffed again at the air before him.

To anyone walking past, he probably looked like a lunatic from the way his hands hung balled against his sides like he was one breath away from to sucker-punching the air, and two breaths away from dropping to the floor and sobbing.

“Lee Taeyong?”

Taeyong jolted before turning to the voice.

A boy with large eyes stood, the Biotech department logo bright against his shirt and a clipboard in one arm.

“Yes?”

“Dude, you’re like three hours late - we all thought you died or something.” The boy scribbled something onto the clipboard before looking up to flash a bubbly smile. “I’m Mark Lee. I’m here to show you around.”

And just like that, all the tiredness, the jetlag, the _stress_ caught up with Taeyong again. He couldn’t afford any more time to be thinking about businessmen with budding alcoholism problems. If Ten didn’t want to be compensated that was fine. It was really not his problem. In a week, Taeyong probably wouldn’t even be able to remember what the man looked like.

In the meantime - he had a degree to get.

**Author's Note:**

> i know literally nothing about Australian geography or marine biology so I don't know what bright voice in my head told me to write this specific au 
> 
> will try and update soon ! ❤


End file.
